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Dermot Bolger
Dermot Bolger (born 1959) is an Irish poet, novelist, playwright, and book editor. Life Bolger was born in Finglas, North Dublin.Bolger, Dermot, Irish Writers Online. Web, Jan. 18, 2017. He attended Beneavin College Secondary School.Dermot Bolger biography, JRank.org. Web, Jan. 18, 2017. In 1977 Bolger founded Raven Arts Press, where he was editor until 1992. In 1992 he co-founded New Island Books. In May 2010 his wife, Bernie, died. Writing His work is often concerned with the articulation of the experiences of working-class characters who, for various reasons, feel alienated from society. Bolger questions the relevance of traditional nationalist concepts of Irishness, arguing for a more plural and inclusive society. ''Night Shift'' (1985) This is Bolger's first novel (or novella?). The central protagonist is Donal, a young man from Finglas who works the night shift in a local factory. Donal's girlfriend, Elizabeth, is pregnant and they both live in a caravan at the foot of her parents' garden. Needless to say, her parents are hardly thrilled at the situation and Donal works hard to improve the life he shares with Elizabeth. This is a complex narrative, containing meditations on the prospects for young people in 1980s Ireland and the rupture between tradition (as represented by Elizabeth's family and those in authority) and the future (as represented by Donal and Elizabeth). Whilst the ending is not what one could describe as happy, it is hopeful in that Donal begins to achieve a degree of clarity about his life, including his relationship with Elizabeth, his relationship with society, and, ultimately, what it will mean to be Irish in the latter part of the 20th century. This novel introduces many of the themes that will resurface in much of Bolger's later writing. ''The Journey Home'' (1990) The Journey Home was originally published by Penguin and was a controversial Irish bestseller. It was later re-issued by Flamingo/HarperCollins. Eighteen years after its publication, it was published in the United States of America by The University of Texas Press and received the lead front cover review on the New York Times Book Review section. The Irish Times said of it: "All 1990s life is there – drink, drugs, political corruption – all the words which have been repeated so often now that they have lost their power to shock. Here, they shock." ''The Family on Paradise Pier'' (2005) The Family on Paradise Pier starts in the tranquil idyll of a Donegal village in 1915 and follows the journeys of one Irish family through the War of Independence, the General Strike in Britain, the dangerous streets of 1930’s Moscow, the Spanish Civil War and on to Soviet gulags, Irish Internment camps and London during the Blitz. The Goold Verschoyle children are born into a respected freethinking Protestant family in a Manor House alive with laughter, debate and fascinating guests. But the world of picnics and childish infatuations is soon under threat as political changes within Ireland and the wider world encroach upon their private paradise. The Family on Paradise Pier tries to show how quickly a family and a class can find themselves displaced and considered foreigners within their own land, with a new generation forced to invent new roles in which to belong. For Eva the dream is to be an artist, yet her fragile vision cannot cope with first love or the reality of London art school. She finds herself married into a stiff Anglo-Irish family, struggling with growing debts and with trying to keep open her soul to the new perceptions while yearning for personal freedom. Politics is how Eva’s brothers make sense of their new world. The eldest son, Art, rejects his inheritance to become a hard-line Marxist. Isolating himself from his family, he tries to belong among the poor, a party agitator working as a manual labourer in Dublin, Moscow and, London. Brendan, the carefree and less fanatical younger brother, also embraces communism until confronted by its harsh realities in the Spanish Civil War with consequences that will haunt and divide his family. Based on real-life people, this family saga grows into a kaleidoscopic portrait of the lives, dreams and tensions of a generation finding their own paths in life between the World Wars. Bolger recreates a family in flux, driven by idealism, racked by argument and united by love and the vivid memories of childhood. The character Brendan is based on Brian Goold Vershcoyle who died in a Soviet gulag and Art is based on the real-life Irish communist Neil Goold Verschoyle. Eva is based on Sheila Fitzgerald (née Goold Verschoyle; 1903–2000) and the novel itself has its origins in tape recordings that the author made in her caravan in 1992. ''Father's Music'' (1997) Music is the pulse of Tracey Evan's life, its beat luring her through dance clubs and rave parties, a seemingly free-spirited 22-year-old London college drop out who laps up the late-night, often ecstasy-induced, pleasures of that city. Yet behind her tough street-wisdom and promiscuity, lurk layers of vulnerability and self-loathing. Her spirit is still in thrall to a past she cannot quit and to memories she cannot obliterate, even by living on a knife-edge of risk. That risk is never greater than when she enters into an uninhibited world of sexual games and fantasies with Luke Duggan, a married Irish businessman living in London. At once loathsome and tender, the chameleon-like Luke is torn apart by the alternating currents of his infamous Dublin criminal family, from whom he has tried to distance himself. When family responsibilities force Luke to return to Dublin, taking Tracey with him, their games of risk and chance become frighteningly real. It is her first visit to Ireland, except for a brief, traumatic childhood excursion to seek her father, a wandering traditional musician from Donegal who vanished after Tracey's birth. Now, as Tracey tries to thread a path through the dangerous criminal underbelly of a drug-ridden city, primed to explode, the answers to her questions about herself, her lost father and Luke's ultimate motives become gradually and terrifying intertwined. In this psychological thriller, Dermot Bolger has fashioned a portrait of a young woman's search for truth in a sea of moral ambuguity, where she can be certain of nothing, least of all her own feelings. Recognition His many awards include the Samuel Beckett Award, 1990; the AE Memorial Award, 1996; and The Stuart Parker BBC Award, 1990. He is a member of Aosdána. Publications Poetry *''The Habit of Flesh''. Dublin: Raven Arts, 1980. *''Finglas Lilies''. Dublin: Raven Arts, 1981. *''No Waiting America''. Dublin: Raven Arts, 1982. *''Internal Exiles: Poems''. Mountrath, Portlaoise, Ireland: Dolmen Press, 1986. *''Leinster Street Ghosts''. Dublin: Raven Arts Press, 1989. *''Taking my Letters Back: New and selected poems''. Dublin: New Island, 1998. *''The Chosen One: New poems''. Dublin: New Island Books, 2004. *''The Chosen Moment''. Dublin: New Island Books, 2004; Oxford, UK: Joe McCann, 2004. *''External Affairs: New poems''. Dublin: New Island / South Dublin County Council, 2008. ISBN 978-1-84840-028-3 *''The Venice Suite: A voyage through loss''. Dublin: New Island, 2012. *''That Which is Suddenly Precious: New & selected poems''. Stillorgan, Co. Dublin: New Island Books, 2015. Plays *''A Dublin Quartet'' ("Lament for Arthur Cleary," "In High Germany," "The Holy Ground," "One Last White Horse"). London & New York: Penguin Books, 1992. *''A Dublin Bloom: An original free adaptation of James Joyce's Ulysses''. Dublin: New Island / London: Nick Hern Books, 1995. *''Greatest Hits: Four Irish one-act plays''. Dublin: New Island, 1997. *''April Bright / Blinded by the Light: Two plays''. Dublin: New Island, 1997. *''In High Germany''. Dublin: New Island, 1999. *''The Passion of Jerome''. London: Methuen, 1999. *''Plays'' 1 (edited by Fintan O'Toole). London: Methuen, 2000. *''From These Green Heights''. Dublin: New Island, 2005. *''Walking the Road: A play in one act''. Dublin: New Island, 2007. *''The Townlands of Brazil''. Dublin: New Island, 2007. *''The Ballymun Trilogy''. Dublin: New Island, 2010. *''The Parting Glss: A play''. Dublin: New Island, 2011. Novels *''Night Shift''. Dingle, Co. Kerry, Ireland: Brandon, 1982; Dublin: Raven Arts, 1985; London: Penguin, 1993. *''The Woman’s Daughter''. Dublin: Raven Arts, 1987; London: Viking, 1991. *''The Journey Home''. London: Viking, 1990; Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2008. *''Emily’s Shoes''. London & New York: Viking, 1992. *''A Second Life''. London & New York: Viking, 1994. *''Father's Music''. London: Flamingo, 1997 *''Temptation''. London: Flamingo, 2000. *''The Valparaiso Voyage''. London: Flamingo, 2001; *''The Family on Paradise Pier''. London: Fourth Estate, 2005; New York & London: Harper, 2006. *''The Fall of Ireland: A novella''. Dublin: New Island, 2012. *''Tanglewood''. Stillorgan, Co. Dublin: New Island, 2015. *''The Lonely Sea and Sky''. Stillorgan, Co. Dublin: New Island, 2016. Non-fiction *''Dudes, Druids, and Beauty Queens: The changing face of Irish theatre''. Dublin: New Island, 2001. Juvenile *''A New Primer for Irish Schools'' (with Michael O'Loughlin). Dublin: Raven Arts, 1985. *''New Town Soul''. Dublin: Little Island, 2010. Edited *''After the War Is Over''. Dublin: Raven Arts, 1984. *''The Bright Wave: Poetry in Irish now = An Tonn Gheal''. Dublin: Raven Arts, 1986. *''The Dolmen Book of Irish Christmas Stories''. Mountrath, Portlaoise, Ireland: Dolmen Press, 1986. *''Invisible Cities: The new Dubliners: A journey through unofficial Dublin''. Dublin: Raven Arts, 1988 **also printed as *''Invisible Dublin: A journey through Dublin's suburbs''. Dublin: Raven Arts, 1991. *''16 on 16: Irish writers on the Easter Rising''. Dublin: Raven Arts, 1988. *''Letters from the New Island''. Dublin: Raven Arts, 1991. *''Wexford through Its Writers''. Dublin: New Island, 1992. *''Ireland in Exile: Irish writers abroad''. Dublin: New Island, 1993. **''The Picador Book of Contemporary Irish Fiction''. London: Picador, 1994; **published in U.S. as The Vintage Book of Contemporary Irish Fiction. New York: Vintage, 1995. *''Finbar's Hotel''. Dublin: New Island, 1997; London: Picador, 1997; San Diego, CA: Harcourt, 1997. *''Ladies' Night at Finbar's Hotel''. Dublin: New Island, 1999; London: Picador, 1999; San Diego, CA: Harcourt, 2000. *''The New Picador Book of Contemporary Irish Fiction''. London: Picador, 2000. *''The New Hennessey Book of Irish Fiction'' (edited with Ciaran Carty). Dublin: New Island, 2005. *''County Lines: A portrait of life in South Dublin County''. Dublin: New Island, 2006. *''The Hennessey Book of Irish Fiction, 2005-2015'' (edited with Ciaran Carty). Stillorgan, Co. Dublin: New Island, 2015. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Dermot Bolger, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Jan. 18, 2017. Plays performed *''The Lament for Arthur Cleary'' (first performed, Dublin: Project Theatre, 1989) *''Blinded by the Light'' (Dublin: Abbey Theatre, Peacock stage, 1990) *''In High Germany'' (Dublin: Gate Theatre, 1990) * 1990: The Holy Ground (Gate Theatre, 1990) * 1991: One Last White Horse (Peacock stage, 1991) *''A Dublin Bloom: An original free adaptation of James Joyce's Ulysses''. 1994 * 1995: April Bright (Peacock stage, 1997) * 1999: ''The Passion of Jerome (Peacock stage, 1999) * 2000: Consenting Adults * 2005: From these Green Heights (Ballymun Arts and Community Resource Centre, 2004) * 2006: The Townlands of Brazil * 2007: Walking the Road (Tallaght: Civic Theatre, 2007) * 2008: The Consequences of Lightning 2008 * 2010: The Parting Glass* (This stand-alone play is a follow-up, 20 years on, about the life of Eoin, the emigrant narrator of Bolger's earlier play, In High Germany.) *2012: Tea Chests and Dreams See also *List of Irish poets *List of English-language playwrights References * Damien Shortt, "The State of the Nation: Paradigms of Irishness in the Drama and Fiction of Dermot Bolger" (PhD thesis, 2006, Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick, Ireland). * Ryan, Ray. Ireland and Scotland: Literature and Culture, State and Nation, 1966–2000. Oxford University Press, 2002. * Paschel, Ulrike: No Mean City?: the image of Dublin in the novels of Dermot Bolger, Roddy Doyle and Val Mulkerns. Frankfurt am Main u.a.: Lang, 1998. – X, 170 S. (Aachen British and American studies; 1). ISBN 3-631-33530-X * Merriman, Vic: "Staging contemporary Ireland: heartsickness and hopes deferred". In: Shaun Richards (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Contemporary Irish Drama. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004; pp. 244–257 (On The Lament for Arthur Cleary, 1989). * Murphy, Paul: "Inside the immigrant mind : nostalgic versus nomadic subjectivities in late twentieth-century Irish drama". In: Australasian Drama Studies, 43 (October 2003), pp. 128–147 (On A Dublin Quartet). * Tew, Philip: "The lexicon of youth in Mac Laverty, Bolger, and Doyle: Theorizing contemporary Irish fiction via Lefebvre's Tenth Prelude". In: Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies, 5:1 (1999), pp. 181–197. *Harte, Liam: "A kind of scab: Irish identity in the writings of Dermot Bolger and Joseph O'Connor". In: Irish Studies Review, 20 (1997 autumn), pp. 17–22. * MacCarthy, Conor: "Ideology and geography in Dermot Bolger's The Journey Home". In: Irish University Review, 27:1 (1997 Spring-Summer), pp. 98–110. * Merriman, Vic: "Centring the wanderer: Europe as active imaginary in contemporary Irish theatre". In: Irish University Review: a journal of Irish studies, 27:1 (1997 Spring-Summer), pp. 166–181 (On The Lament for Arthur Cleary). * Aragay, Mireia: "Reading Dermot Bolger's The Holy Ground: national identity, gender and sexuality in post-colonial Ireland". In: Links and Letters, 4 (1997), pp. 53–64. * Turner, Tramble T.: "Staging signs of gender". In: John Deely (ed.), Semiotics 1994: Annual proceedings volumes of the Semiotic Society of America. 19. New York: Lang, 1995. pp. 335–344 (On The Lament for Arthur Cleary, 1989). * Dantanus, Ulf.: "Antæus in Dublin?" In: Moderna språk (97:1), 2003, pp. 37–52. * Battaglia, Alberto.: Dublino: oltre Joyce. Milan: Unicopli, 2002. pp. 130 (Città letterarie). *Dumay, Émile-Jean.: "Dermot Bolger dramaturge". In: Études irlandaises (27:1) 2002, pp. 79–92. *Dumay, Émile-Jean.: "La subversion de la nostalgie dans The Lament for Arthur Cleary de Dermot Bolger". In: Études irlandaises (21:2) 1996, pp. 111–23. * Fiérobe, Claude: "Irlande et Europe 1990: The Journey Home de Dermot Bolger". In: Études irlandaises (19:2) 1994, pp. 41–49. * Kearney, Colbert: "Dermot Bolger and the dual carriageway". In: Études irlandaises (19:2), 1994, pp. 25–39. * Shortt, Damien: "A River Runs Through It: Irish History in Contemporary Fiction, Dermot Bolger and Roddy Doyle". In: Paddy Lyons; Alison O'Malley-Younger (eds), No Country for Old Men: Fresh Perspectives on Irish Literature. Frankfurt am Main u.a. Oxford u.a.: Lang, 2009. pp. 123–141 (Reimagining Ireland; 4). * Murphy, Paula: "From Ballymun to Brazil: Bolger's Postmodern Ireland". In: Eamon Maher ... (eds), Modernity and Postmodernity in a Franco-Irish Context. Frankfurt am Main u.a.: Lang, 2008. pp. 161–178 (Studies in Franco-Irish Relations; 2). *Shortt, Damien: "Dermot Bolger: Gender Performance and Society". In: Paula Murphy... (eds), New Voices in Irish literary Criticism. Lewiston, N.Y.; Lampeter: Edwin Mellen, 2007. pp. 151–166. *Brihault, Jean: "Dermot Bolger, romancier de la mondialisation?" In: Yann Bévant ... (eds), Issues of Globalisation and Secularisation in France and Ireland. Frankfurt, M. u.a.: Lang, 2009. pp. 101–122 (Studies in Franco-Irish Relations; 3). *Wald, Christina: "Dermot Bolger". In: Martin Middeke (ed.), The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary Irish Playwrights, London: Methuen Drama, 2010. pp. 19–36. *Shortt, Damien: "Who put the ball in the English net: the privatisation of Irish postnationalism in Dermot Bolger's In High Germany". In: Irene Gilsenan Nordin; Carmen Zamorano Llena (eds), Redefinitions of Irish identity: a postnationalist approach. Frankfurt, M. u.a.: Lang, 2010. pp. 103–124 (Cultural identity studies; 12). *Imhof, Rüdiger: "Dermot Bolger". In: The Modern Irish Novel: Irish Novelists after 1945. Rüdiger Imhof. Dublin : Wolfhound Press, 2002. pp. 267–285. *Murphy, Paula: "Scattering us like seed: Dermot Bolger's postnationalist Ireland". In: Irene Gilsenan Nordin; Carmen Zamorano Llena (eds), Redefinitions of Irish Identity: a postnationalist approach. Frankfurt, M. u.a.: Lang, 2010. pp. 181–199 (Cultural identity studies; 12). *Schreiber, Mark: "Playing it out – football and Irishness in contemporary Irish drama". In: Sandra Mayer; Julia Novak; Margarete Rubik (eds), Ireland in Drama, Film, and Popular Culture : Festschrift for Werner Huber. Trier: WVT Wissenschaftlicher Verl. Trier, 2012. pp. 83–89. * Murphy, Paula: " 'Marooned men in foreign cities': encounters with the Other in Dermot Bolger's The Ballymun Trilogy". In: Pilar Villar-Argáiz (ed), Literary visions of multicultural Ireland: The immigrant in contemporary Irish literature. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2014. pp. 151–162. * Salis, Loredana: "Goodnight and joy be with you all: tales of contemporary Dublin city life". In: Pilar Villar-Argáiz (ed), Literary visions of multicultural Ireland: The immigrant in contemporary Irish literature. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2014. pp. 243–254. * Schrage-Früh, Michaela: "Like a foreigner / in my native land: transculturality and Otherness in twenty-first-century Irish poetry". In: Pilar Villar-Argáiz (ed), Literary visions of multicultural Ireland: The immigrant in contemporary Irish literature. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2014. pp. 163–175. * Mikowski, Sylvie: "Dermot Bolger et la Raven Arts Press: A loose coalition for change". In: Genet, Jacqueline (ed), Le livre en Irlande: l'imprimé en contexte. Caen: Presses Univ. de Caen, 2006. pp. 137–146. *O'Brien, Cormac: "Unblessed Amongst Women: Performing Patriarchy Without Men in Contemporary Irish Theatre". In: Christopher Collins; Mary P. Caulfield (eds), Ireland, Memory and Performing the Historical Imagination. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. pp. 190–195. *Grene, Nicholas: "Snapshots : A year in the life of a theatre judge". In: Donald E. Morse (ed), Irish theatre in transition : from the late nineteenth to the early twenty-first century. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. pp. 175–176. * Müller, Sonja: Von der georgianischen Ära bis zum Zeitalter des keltischen Tigers: der Wandel der Stadtdarstellung im Dublinroman. Berlin: Lit, 2015. – pp. 263–285 (Erlanger Studien zur Anglistik und Amerikanistik; 16). ISBN 978-3-643-13008-2 * Kilroy, Claire: "Dermot Bolger: Tanglewood". In: Times Literary Supplement (5857) 2015, pp. 26. * Phillips, Terry: Irish Literature and the First World War: Culture, Identity and Memory. Frankfurt am Main u.a. Oxford u.a.: Lang, 2015. pp. 255–260, 261 (Reimagining Ireland; 72). ISBN 978-3-0343-1969-0 (On Walking the Road). * Hanrahan, Anna: Narrating the Ballymun Experience in Dermot Bolger's Ballymun Trilogy. Trier : Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2016. pp. 99–114 (Irish Studies in Europe; 7). ISBN 978-3-86821-652-3. Notes External links ;Audio / video *Dermot Bolger at YouTube ;About *Dermot Bolger at Irish Writers Online *Dermot Bolger at Aosdána *Dermot Bolger at HarperCollins *Dermot Bolger Official website. Category:Living people Category:1959 births Category:Irish novelists Category:Irish poets Category:People from County Dublin Category:Aosdána members Category:20th-century Irish writers Category:21st-century Irish writers Category:Irish male novelists Category:Male poets Category:Irish male poets Category:20th-century poets Category:21st-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets Category:Irish editors Category:Irish dramatists and playwrights